Archive for February, 2016

Some companies use group exercises as a key part of evaluating their candidates to assess how they’d perform on the job. Factors such as teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills can be observed. This may involve discussing a particular issue, constructing something, or analyzing a complex business case study and presenting the findings. Target uses group exercises to evaluate their candidates, for example, and they look for people who are flexible and full of ideas yet willing to listen to and help expand others’ ideas. Here are two examples you may want to use if you have multiple candidates at the same time for an opening:

The Leaderless Task, which involves each candidate being given a description of a role or a situation, that may or may not be different from others in the group. No one is designated as the leader. As a group, the teams must come up with a decision acceptable to all within the time limit provided. The goal is for the group to find a compromise solution. Sometimes negotiation is involved, so the employer can assess who is a better fit for the leader.

The Tower Power Task, which asks groups of candidates to build the tallest free-standing paper tower they can. Teams must build their structure out of 20 pieces of paper and one yard of tape. Allow 10 minutes of pre-planning time and 10 minutes of tower building time. Surprising lessons emerge and allow employers to assess who is a natural leader, who planned well, who is flexible when plans change, and how the teams handle defeat.